North Carolina Newspapers

FOUR Will, it appeared, made no effor to send Zeke away; he treated Zeki with a slow courtesy, and Huldy too. He seemed to preserve by hii demeanor the fiction that Zeke wai a loyal hand, a willing hand abou the farm; that Huldy was all a wlf< should be. Old Win Haven, accord lng to rumor, taunted him one day and then shrank in affright befort Will's blazing eyes, and babbled hi! apologies, withdrawing the offend lng word. This had happened It Liberty village, by the store, wltt otter men about; and It was said that Will had looked like death, till the others hurried Win away. And Jenny thought of Huldy mov*? * >? !- "nJ frn ahont the lug luaujcuiij' tv uuu farm, doing the housework with a casual ease?It was agreed that she was a good housekeeper?idling alone on the ledge above the brook, strolling in the orchard or across the fields; and always with Zeke like a Jealous guardian on her heels. Zeke, some one said, was not so stalwart as he had used to be. He had begun to cough, and to lose weight It was even predicted that he might not live the winter through. Bart came to the door one day, on his way home from the village, and he said: "Huldy and Zeke was in Liberty today. Drlv' over in Will's sleigh." This was in February, with snow deep on the road. He chuckled: "If Zeke and me went at It again, I guess I could handle him now. He's failed pitiful, this last six months." "You leave the pore thing be, Bart" Marm Pierce warned him. "He's got enough trouble on his hands." Bart nodded soberly. "It's a wonder to me how Will stands it," he confessed. "I see her today. She's the same as ever, with an eye for every man around, and that smiling way she has." Marm Pierce, putting away the parcels he had brought, asked with a glance toward the dining room whither Jenny had withdrawn: "Will wa'n't along with them today?" "Didn't see him, no," Bart returned. "He stays to home, the most of the time." And he chuckled, and said: "It was funny to see the men today, kind of circling, and watching, like they was waiting for something. Like a bunch of crows around a sick horse, waiting to see what was going to happen next." And he said: "Zeke, he won't last long!" "Guess you won't go to his funeral when he dies," Marm Pierce commented. "Oh, I don't hold a thing against Zeke," Bart assured her. "I figure I've got all the better of our argument. by now." "How would Amy feel about that?" the old woman demanded; and Bart said slowly: "Pore Amy!" But he rose as though uneasily. "Well," he decided, "I'll be going along." After he was gone, Marm Pierce was busy with supper for a while. Jenny helping her; but when they had finished the meal, as though after long reflection, the old woman said; "Child, there's things the less said about them the better; but I can feel it in my bones, something's going to happen around here. I dunno what It'll be: hut I don't want you mixed up in it." .Tenny looked at her gravely. "What can happen, Granny?" The old woman hesitated. "1 dunno as I know," she confessed, "But Jenny, don't you let whal hurts other folks hurt you." She added vigorously: "And don't lei other folks hurt you, Jenny. There's apt as not to be trouble. Don't gel in the way of It One of thest days, somebody, some man's goin; to. . . She shook her head "Child," she said. "I don't know what I'm scared of, but I'm scared.' "Of what?" Jenny protested re assuringly. 'If I knowed that, I'd know wha to do," the old woman retorted yet she said slowly: "Amy died o it, Jenny. I don't want a thing ti happen to you." Jenny could not understand; ye she could share her grandmother' doubts and fears. This season fror late February till the flood tide o summer must always be a wear; one, when nerves are ragged an frayed; and especially in this nortt em land where the inhospitabl earth is still unwilling to reeeiv the stroke of plow, so that man ca only wait, his energies restraine and fuming for an outlet, till th time for action comes. This year, the season of waitiu was a long one; the frost was deei the spring was slow. Bart stoppe at the house one morniifg. th wheels of his buggy mud-clotted t . ' the hubs; to take commissions for I shopping at the village; and after " he was gone, it rained, so that they ' J were kept all day indoors. Dusk ' came early, till the lamps in the kitchen and dining room made all '1 snug and warm. Marm Pierce and 9 Jenny began to prepare supper; and the old woman went out to I survey the weather signs. j "It might lift tomorrow," she ' said. "The wind's this way, that way. now; but if It shifts, we'll get J a change. It'll be a late spring, and j sudden. First touch of sun, and everything will grow a week In a I day. A spring like this, I can't get my simples when they're right." "I'll go tomorrow and see what I can find." Jenny offered. "You can get me a water lily root, anyway," Marm Pierce reflected. "If the water ain't too deep." The girl said: "There's a pool down toward the bog with an old log In it, and lilies grow In back of the log. It's not deep there. I can reach down." '| Marm Pierce opened the oven to see if the biscuits were done, and a blast of hot air struck her In the :l face. "Whew I" she exclaimed, and 'J closed the oven. "I'm bound to air " " - ' ?J A ! out or sutrcate. sne saiu, auu , opened the kitchen ?oor. Then she ejaculated: "Bart! I shut down across the land Thereafter, till spring, neither Jenny nor , her grandmother went far from the house. The girl had been used to wander sometimes in the winter woods; but this winter there we<e many tracks along the brook, where men had come up from the stream mill to Bart's. Marm Pierce, and Jenny's own wit, warned her not to risk casual encounters with these strangers. "Most times, I wouldn't worry a mite about them," the old woman admitted. "But a woman like Huldy, she'll poison every man anywhere around her, till you can't tell what'll happen!" So for the most part Jenny stayed at home. Bart now and then stopped on the way to the village, and this was almost their only contact with the world. Disaster might have come to tbem and none have known for days; but Jenny was not afraid. It was not easy to be afraid, in the presence of her old grandmother. That dauntless old woman was as voluble, as brisk, as diligent and as crisp of spirit as of old; and the two were congenial and content. And Will was always in Jenny's mind, and she held long hopes and dreams. And sometimes to ease the girl, Marm Pierce led her to talk of Will, and sometimes they played a game of make believe in which Huldy did not exist, and Will was I free to come to Jenny. But the game was apt to end In a sudden choking longing which left Jenny white and breathless; till the old woman forbore. In the spring, Marm Pierce had some taint of rheumatism in her old bones, which resisted all her remedies; so she sent Jenny to gather herbs that might relieve It. Also, one day she bade the girl bring a root of the water lily, from one of the deep boggy pools in the brook near the cedar swamp, and concocted a fearful brew which she made ' Jenny drink day by day. The girl protested: "But, Granny, I don't need a tonic. . I feel fine." "Hush, child," the old woman lnsisted. "I know what I'm about." Yet | she did explain: "Spring's the time when the new sap runs In a tree, or j In a body, too; and that may be t all well enough If the tree's to go , on flowering and bearing. But if I some hurt or harm come to it, why the quick pulse of the sap just makes it j , bleed to death the quicker. This will slow your blood, child. Do as . I bid." And Jenny drank, obediently; and t as the frost came out of the ground, ; and the hardwoods put on their f veil of new green, the deep flood a . of new life flowed through her, too. Indoors all winter, she welcomed t this release, and went more often s abroad, and strength was In her like a a flowing well. f Once, wandering toward the y bridge, she met Amy by the brook, d It was long since they had seen i- one another, and Jenny thought Amy e looked broken and old and very e tired. She said some word of son llcitude, but Amy fled from her kindd ness as though In fright or In dcse pair. At home again, Jenny related this circumstance to her grnndg mother. >, "She looks real poorly, Granny," d she confessed. "Maybe If yon'd e give her some of this tonic yon give o me. . . ." a HiMiiHfi'fUMMa ff THE STATE PORT PI "Sulphur and molasses is likely all ! she needs," Marm Pierce guessed, j "Amy knows that well as me, but If she needs me. I 'low she'll let me know." But in this conjecture Marm | Pierce was tragically wrong. Amy needed more than homely remedies; but she did not come to commit the old woman, and though Jenny went once to the house to see the *4\my's Drunk ^frne Apple Spray!" other, she saw only Bart, and he showed an unaccustomed ill humor at her solicitude. "He was fixing to spray his apple trees," Jenny explained, when she I returned. "Working in the barn. I guess Amy was inside the house; | but Bart said she was all right." She did not confess Bart's ill huJ mor. It had seemed to her at the 1 time futile and reasonless, yet not | her concern. | But two or three days later she , would remember it, and regret that ' she had not persisted In her intent to see Amy. For Bart came j in haste' through the woods path, Marm Pierce to take measures of ! firoronHnn "You'll have to," she said. "Be I cause Win won't never do anything. ' He was to our house the other night, and talked about it; and he 'lows to be 'round when his side of the house falls, and to watch and see the trouble It makes for you. Brags that If you try to mend anything he'll take a shotgun to you." "He around again, is he?' Marm Pierce demanded tartly. "I didn't know but he'd died in a gutter somewheres before now." "He comes to our place right along," Amy assured them. "There's a new steam mill putting in down brook below here, opposite where Seth's mill used to be. They come In from Liberty village. Win, he's working there. He comes up and him and Bart set and drink and brag." She added huskily: "Win, 1 he's shining up to Huldy, too." "That old fool!" Marm Pierce ex' claimed. "You can't go to blame him," Amy said ruefully. "Seems like she takes a kind of satisfaction In fretting a man, and getting him haired up, and laughing at hiin after." And she said slowly: "But I don't know as she's bothering with anyone, only Zeke, now." Jenny caught some accent in the girl's tone. Her perceptions were | perhaps quickened by her own love for Will; but Marm Pierce, in this matter not so wise, said sharply: "Zeke's as big a fool as any of them. I 'lowed he had more sense than that." "Zeke's all right," Amy said, In humble defense. "Only he. . . ." Her eyes filled with slow tears. "He used to come down to set with me," she confessed. "Always joking and laughing, he was. Zeke's a hand to make a joke out of things. But I ain't seen him lately." So Marm Pierce understood, and her lips set in anger. "I'd like to give that hussy a piece of my mind!" she cried Impotently. Amy whispered: "Sometimes I'm ' scared!" she shivered uneasily. I "Dunno what I'm scared of, either. But the men tiiat have seen her, sometimes they come down to our nloce and tliev're half ernzv. kind of. Bart, be hates the sight of her. He can't say anything hard enough of her. He's always been a good ! friend to Will, and to have her treat I Will so frets Bart awful. And Win Haven, he'll come down and cuss and rave and rant about her, ' like he wanted to twist her neck, j But 7,eke, he don't ever come ' down!" "Xor Will?" Jenny guessed. I "Will, he stays up there," Amy assented. "Him and Zeke." The girl shuddered. "I dunno what's going to come of it," she admitted, fearfully. And she said: "Bart talks about licking Zeke. He says somebody'd I ought to, long as Will can't do It himself." Marm Pierce asked sharply: ! "Can't Will take a gun to him, or a I cart stave? If he had any gumption In him. . . " (Continued next week) "How did you make your neighi bor keep his hens in his own yard ?" "One night I hid a half dozen eggs under a bush in my garden, and next day I let him see me gather them. I wasn't bothered after that." LOT, SOUTHPORT, NORT1 Dillon Jenrette Convicted ol Murder in Second Degree: Other Criminal Cases Triec (Continued From Page 1) Judge Williams expressed hi: opinion that the jury had beet good to the defendant: that hi was a very fortunate young man He declared the crime for whicl he had been convicted to be oni of the most brutal he had eve: heard unfolded in a court room He told Jenrette that he had n< respect for the law and that thi public must be protected againsi men of his type. The jury, hi continued, might easily havi found him guilty of first degrei murder. He added that he hac no quarrel with the jury con cerning their verdict, but thai he considered that the defendani had been the recipient of a merer ful verdict. Judgment His judgment was that the deferent, Dillon Jenrette, be confined to the North Carolina stati penitentiary at Raleigh for z period of not less that 29 yean nor more than 30 years, to b< worked at hard labor under thi supervision of the State Highway and Public Works Commission. Thus ended the murder case which has been the chief topic of conversation in all sections ol Brunswick county since the bod} of Louis W. Ganus was founc in the woods near his home or Friday morning, September 6 with a bullet hole in his head Four negro men were arrested upon suspicion immediately following the crime and were held in jail for several days. Jenrette was not arrested until one week later. After he had been placed in the Columbus county jail at Whiteville he confessed that he had killed Ganus, a near neighboi of his, but insisted that he had shot him accidentally. It was the contention of the state that the killing was deliberate and evidence was introduced tending to show that Ganus wae struck on the side of his head uu ? Knfnro Vio urfl C wiui a. iietixiiiicx .?v shot. Solicitor J. J. Burney wa* assisted in the prosecution by G Van Fesperman and R. E. Sentelle of Southport. The defense attempted tc strengthen the story of an accidental shooting as related bj Jenrette. Counsel contended thai there was no motive for murdei and asked that their client be found not guilty. R. W. Davis and S. B. Frink of Southport anc Dwight McEwen of Wilmingtor appeared for the defendant. Began Thursday The trial began Thursday morning. A special venire of 100 mer had been summoned for jurj service and the last juror was secured about 1:30 o'clock in the afternoon. The jury was composec of E. D. Miliken, foreman. T. A Caison, R. F. Swain, E. M. Danford, A. B. Willis, J. T. Nelson Bill Lennon, Kenneth McKeithan Arthur Sue, J. D. Johnson, E. M Hickman, Robert Peterson anc Johnie Peterson, alternate. Coroner M. A. Northrop was the first witness to take the stand. He told of being notifiec on the morning of September ( that the body of Louis W. Ganus had been found in the woods neai his home. He told of going tc the scene where the body wa: discovered and of finding the bodj almost immersed in a pond 01 water, only the head remaining on dry land. He said that the deceased was 58 years of age, was 5 feet si> inches in height and weighed ap proximately 140 pounds. The clothes cut from the body of the dead man were offered in evidence. Coroner Northrop said thai there was a bullet hole in th< head of the deceased and there was a bruise on his right side On Friday, September 13, the body of Louis Ganus was exhum ed for the purpose of perform ing an autopsy, according to the testimony of the coroner. At tha" time the skull cap was removec f UnJir o fKia n 1 an ii vi 11 uic iaiuj, aiiu lino aiou v/n ered in evidence by the state. A lead bullet removed from thi brain of the deceased also wa: exhibited and offered in evidence Confession The coroner then told of ? confession made to him by th< defendant, Dillion Jenrette, at th( Columbus county jail in White ville on the night of Septembei 13. This statement was made ir the presence of Jailor J. W. Bur ney and Deputy Sheriff Melvir One of our readers says hi went into Chroff's the other daj and had a "sizzling platter" 01 sole. On the way to the cashier'! desk he happened to notice hovi the item was entered on hi! check: "1 sizzling soul." "His idea of how a he-mai should be played is to throw ou his chest three inches and slowl; follow it across the stage." In a Rye, New Hampshire, bar bershop some masculinist hai crossed out Special in the sigi Special Attention to Woman am Children, and substituted To< Much. .... . . .t H CAROLINA f Lewis. Following is the confes; sion made at that time: 1 "I saw that you all knew it iand I decided that the best thing I could do was to own it. On the 3 evening of September 4 I went I bird hunting with a 22 rifle. It ?' belonged to Curtis Ganus and I was hunting in the bay on the * I side of the road between his II house and Mr. Fletcher McKeith? an's. While I was shooting I r heard the man and I came out in . the road where he was and he > was laying in the road and I was ? very frightened. I did not see the 11 man when I was shooting. I ;! drug him off outside the road ; and run and left him. This hap> pened just before sundown." 1 Dr. W. R. Goley of Shallotte - was qualified as an expert witt ness and took the stand. He ret ported that he examined the body . i on the day it was found, and discovered what appeared to be i blows on the side of the head . I and a bullet wound in the top . | of the head near the back. He >1 declared that he had probed the i wound and expressed an opinion i that the direction of the bullet . had been down and toward the ? front of the head. .) Dr. William S. Dosher also was . qualified as an expert witness and took the stand. He reported ? that he had examined a hammer ; which was brought to him by G. f Van Fesperman and Detectives r A. A. Nelms and J. B. Russ. He 1 reported that he found what api peared to be matted hair on the , hammer and what appeared to . be blood stains. A chemical anal1 ysis which he ran indicated that . these stains were blood. The hamI mer was offered in evidence by > the state. ;! Dr. Dosher told of the autopsy I performed by him and Dr. Arthur ; Dosher on Friday, September 13, . after the body of Louis Ganus had been exhumed. He reported I finding a bullet hole in the top of the head of the deceased, of . I finding a communutive fracture . I on the right side of the head I with a linear frature which exi j tended from the right temple re| gion to the bullet hole. He read i letters to the jury showing the i official findings of this autopsy. A -**?? TV\oKon uraq flllflli ' Ul~. ill U1U1 JL'waiivi ??w ? . I fied as an expert witness and offered testimony in corroboration i of the testimony of Dr. William .' S. Dosher. r Map Drill ; J. B. Russ, an employee of the National Bureau of Investigation > of Wilmington, was called to the j stand and was asked by Solicitor I Burney to make a chalk map on i the floor showing the roads, paths and houses in the immediate neighborhood where the body was . discovered. , i Dr. Arthur Dosher was recalled r to the stand and in response to s a question from the solicitor de> clared that it was his belief that I the fracture appearing in the right temple region of the de. ceased occurred before the bullet wound. By this time Detective Russ had completed his drawing on 1 the floor and. under direction of lawyers for both sides, preceded s to give the lay of the land. ? Willie Ganus, brother of the j dead man, was the next witness 5 to go on the stand. He said that 5 he la^t saw his brother alive f about the middle of the after, noon on September 4. He said s that he learned Thursday mornr ing that his brother was missing f when he discovered he had not r slept at his home on the previous night. He declared that he search3 ed for his brother all day long, : but was forced to give up at . dark without any result. >; By Friday morning a general ? alarm had been spread concern. ing the continued absence of the missing man and several persons I gathered to aid in the search, > according to the testimony of Mr. ? Ganus. While searching with Sam . | Butler, colored, Mr. Ganus said > that he came upon the body of . his brother. He offered other evi. dence concerning the inquest and ; autopsy. He declared that it was t the custom for his brother to carj ry a large amount of money tirit-Vi him anH hp said that this L money was always in an old, tan ? pocket book. This pocket book , was missing when the body was found, he said, and the watch pocket where the deceased car, ried his money was open. , Friday's Session I Court adjourned shortly after 6 o'clock in the afternoon for the r day. Friday's session opened at , 9 o'clock. ., Willie Ganus again took the . stand and gave evidence con. ceming the grading and sale of ? tobacco by his brother before his r death. During the cross examinf ation he was submitted to a ge3 ography examination of his home r community and also was required s to answer questions which tended to show that his brother was not as financially independent as he 1 had implied by his testimony of t the previous afternoon. ; F. N. McKeithan. neighbor of thi* deceased and the man with whom Louis Ganus took his - meals, was next on the stand, a He testified that he last saw the i deceased alive about 5 o'clock on 1 the afternoon of September 4 at j his barn. He told of going to the home of Louis Ganus that I \ . . - v , WEDNESD j night to discover why he had not ' ' come for his supper and of the search conducted on the two fol-; ; lowing days, ending in the find- j j ing of the body. He said that1 1 on Thursday while the search j was being conducted Dillon Jen-' rette suggested that the body of the missing man might have been j hid in a pile of hay under a I j tobacco barn shelter and he said that the defendant volunteered to i look there himself for the body. He said that on Thursday dur, ing the search members of the party passed along a road within a few steps of where the body was found the next day but I saw no sign of it. Bird Hunting Curtis Ganus was called to the ; stand. He said that he and Dil| Ion Jenrette were in the woods1 shooting birds with a .22 rifle on j ' the afternoon his uncle was killed. | About 4 o'clock, he said, he left j | the defendant and went to his1 [ home to help load some tobacco to be taken to market. He saw | Dillon Jenrette again that night, { ! he said, when the latter was on j his way to church where a protracted meeting was in progress. I The defendant returned his rifle j to him at that time, he added. His other testimony corroborated (that of other witnesses. Sheriff John W. Hall of Columbus county took the stand and testified that he heard the defendant when he made a statement that he had shot Louis Ganus while he was in the woods hunting birds. This statement which Sheriff Hall heard him make was similar in detail to the one made to Coroner Northrop. Detective A. A. Nelms, of the National Bureau of Investigation of Wilmington was the next witness to testify. He said that he was called on the case on September 9. J. B. Russ was with him, he said. The first place they visited, according to him, was the home of Willie Ganus. Later they went to the home of Louis Ganus and from there they followed a trail to where the body was located. An examination of papers in the home of the deceased failed to disclose anything of interest, according to Detective Nelms. ini-?Vino* through the HiUIV ?VW??>.g 0 house again on the morning of I September 12, Detective Nelms I said he discovered a hammer I which had some hair in the claws. I There also appeared to be blood stains on the hammer, he said. In company with Mr. Fesper- I man, who assisted in the investi- I gation, and Detective Russ, he I went to the hospital where Dr. I William S. Dosher made an analysis of the stains on the hammer I and found them to be caused by I blood. Specimens of the hair were I placed in a glass slide. On the morning of September I 12 several men of the neighbor- I hood were engaged in target I shooting at the home of Willie I Ganus and Detective Nelms said that Dillon Jenrette, who by this 11 time was under suspicion, was 11 induced to join in the target prac- I I tice. His object, he said, was to I find out just how skilled the de- I fendant was in the use of a rifle. 11 He was a good shot, he said. On Friday, September 13. de-11 tective Nelms said that he made j an investigation of the hay pile I under the tobacco barn shelter I and discovered a depression in I the hay about six feet long and I two feet wide. It was the theory I of those in charge of the inves- j I tigation that the body of Louis I Ganus had been hidden there I after he was killed. Jenrette was I arrested that afternoon when he I returned to his home from a trip I to Whiteville. Detective Nelms then recount- I ed the story told him by the de- I fendant which later in the day I was repeated on the stand. John McKeithan. another resi- I dent of the neighborhood, told of I having passed along the road near ' which the body was discovered on Thursday but said that he saw no sign of the body. Girls Testify Dottie Bell McKeithan took the stand and said that she had been grading tobacco with the deceased on the day of the murder. The deceased was expected at > her home for supper, she said, but failed to show up. Aggie McKeithan testified that she, too, had been working with the deceased on September 4. She was staying at the same home ^ith Dottie Bell McKeithan and told the same story about the search for Louis Ganus. Court adjourned for lunch. Ceaser Daniels, colored, was the first witness on the stand Friday afternoon and all his testimony was corroborative. Leamon Russ, nephew of the deceased said that he and several other boys searched for the body of his missing uncle on Thursday. They rode mule back, he said, and passed near the spot j where the body was found the | following day but saw no sign of J it. D. L. Ganus, another nephew, testified that he aided in the mule back search but saw no sign of his uncle. Casper Ganus and Ottis Russ. the other boys who aided in the riding search, told similar stories. (Continued on page 8) " HURRY? C0|j ror Bar J School S J A" sizes, Black a9 Oxfords and SluA Make Your Se!^| The Price is ^Vork Shoes! Plain Toe and Cap I $2.50 value ..jB rreeman Shoefl Worn with pride il MILLIONS 1 STYLE is not natufl CURLEEal STYLE Fit $173 to J OTHER SUITS I $9.95 to S17M Let us fit you in 4H of these Double BhnkB Part Wool CHATHAM BLAhtm All wool H 84.95 andupR porJv^J "ot^a COLLI "Trade